Jesse Stoddard: All welcome to another episode of the Ride and Style podcast with my host Josh Pollson here and I’m Jesse Stoddard. Hello everybody.

Jesse Stoddard: And today we’re really excited to introduce Manny Mcotta of Automotive Solutions. Hayward, California, the Bay Area’s automotive accessory leader. Hi, Manny. Thanks for being with us today. Excellent.

Manny Moncada: Hey, how are you guys doing?

Josh Poulson: we are doing fantastic. Jesse, I am super excited. Manny, one of my good friends in this business, bro. we’ve been friends for a long time and…

Manny Moncada: And partner It was Boston.

Josh Poulson: 

Josh Poulson: Yeah, we’ll get into that. but no I mean Manny and I have known each other for man was your first meeting for Restylers United Boston was it? Gosh, what year was that?

Manny Moncada: I think it’s been about 12 years.

Josh Poulson: Do you have any rec recollection?

Manny Moncada: 12 to 15 years.

Josh Poulson: So yeah, about 15 years ago you came to Boston.

Manny Moncada: Yeah. All the way to Boston.

Josh Poulson: You flew all the way from his first meeting. We said, “Yeah, we’re gonna see if this guy’s serious. he flies from California to Boston.” And we had a good time. what was your I got to ask you.

Josh Poulson: And we’ll go back into history in a minute, but what was your first impression coming to a Restylers United meeting? you and I were sitting across from dinner for each other when we met. What was your first impression? Not of just me, obviously, because you were like, I hate this guy, but Yeah.

Manny Moncada: Right. …

Manny Moncada: it was Jeff Fletcher that invited me and he told me about the group and I was in a spot where I was like, “Yeah, I’m all alone. I need some ideas.” And he told me a little bit about the group.

Manny Moncada: And so then when I went into the group had no idea what you guys were about and I was intimidated but I felt very comfortable with everybody that was in the group. So after a good couple hours it was fine. I felt like this is going to be pretty good. Of course I had to get voted in and looking around the room.

00:05:00

Josh Poulson: He barely made it.

Manny Moncada: You can edit this part. I was the only Mexican.

Josh Poulson: So, we were working on our DEI. Yeah. So, you were in no matter what.

Manny Moncada: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: No. I mean, I remember talking to you and you were like, how big’s your business?” And you know what? not we weren’t sharing tons of stuff, but you’re like, “Yeah, I got this many.” and I were almost exactly alike. I remember. I’m like, and we started talking about our pains and struggles and we had the same problems. We became blood brothers.

Manny Moncada: That’s right.

Josh Poulson: But go ahead, Jesse. let’s you got to hear that.

Jesse Stoddard: Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Poulson: His dad has the best story in some of the products. I want him to talk about this.

Jesse Stoddard: Go way back to the beginning though, if you don’t mind. We want to know how you got into the automotive industry to begin with. What was your first experience,…

Jesse Stoddard: first whatever? and the family side, too. If you don’t mind, go back to the beginning.

Josh Poulson: 50 years,…

Josh Poulson: Look at his 50 years. Wow.

Manny Moncada: I think it was I was 10 years old and we were living in Fresno and my dad was working for a company called United Glass and…

Manny Moncada: it was a glass company and every Christmas my dad found a way to get fired at the Christmas parties.

Josh Poulson: Wait, wait.

Josh Poulson: Why? I love him.

Manny Moncada: He was drinking. and he’d always get in an argument and fight with one of the employees and every year he’d come back the next day and everything was fine. It was a big joke, Manuel’s going to get fired this Christmas.

Josh Poulson: 

Manny Moncada: One Christmas he didn’t get rehired. Okay.

Manny Moncada: But prior to that with United Glass, he went to his owner and he started up calling on car dealers and started air conditioning business and it was called Air Automotive Refrigerant Air.  And Bob Bakis at the time was the president of Arra and he lived in Dallas and he set United Glass up with air conditioning in the Fresno Central Valley and basically built the business for United Glass with air conditioning.  So when he got fired, he was without a job. Called Bob Bakus and Bob told him, he goes, “Look,” he goes, ” we’ll find a place for you,” He goes, “Pack your bags and come up to bring the family up to his lake house in Dallas.”

Manny Moncada: So little did we know 9 years old the family of four kids took a motor home went across country and Bob had one place for my dad to stop off and it would went to LA met a guy and he it’s not going to work so we continue to Dallas and again we had no idea my dad didn’t have a job and so we get to Dallas had a great time that’s why I learned how to water

Manny Moncada: And Bob had talked to my dad. He goes, “Look,” he goes, ” we’ll find a spot for you.” He goes, ” when you get back,” he goes, “I want you to go up to the Bay Area. I want you to meet a guy by the name of Joe Huber.” And just check it out. And so before we left, he’d asked my dad, he goes, “How much were you making a month at you bring home?”  He goes, “I was bringing home $1,500 a month.” He goes, “Okay.” He goes, “Until we find you a job.” He goes, “I’ll have a check for you.” This is the manufacturer. Yeah. Was the president, the owner of Bob Bakas, just said, “Hey,” It was on a handshake. He goes, “When you go back home,” he goes, “I will have $1,500 check until we find you a place to work.

Josh Poulson: Is it…

Josh Poulson: because was your dad like an installer? Was he a manager? Was he selling? Was he doing it all?

Manny Moncada: He was selling calling on car dealers.

Manny Moncada: He was the one that was building the relationships with the dealers in Fresno and that’s where the air conditioning business came from. So he saw what he did in Fresno and he’s like I’m going to find somewhere for you to do the same thing somewhere else. So we get home from our trip and My dad told me, goes, “There’s a check for $1,500.” And man of his word. Bob said, “It goes go up to the Bay Area, check out this place called Auto House. Joe Huber owned it.” And he came up and he says, “Yeah, I can work with Joe.” And so, three months later, they were in partnership.

00:10:00

Manny Moncada: Bob basically put my dad in business and said, “Joe,…

Josh Poulson: So he said,…

Josh Poulson: “Jim, Manny’s your new partner.” Wow.

Manny Moncada: this is your new partner, Manny, and he’s going to build the business in the Bay Area for the air conditioning.” And so that lasted about a year of a partnership and then my dad ended up buying him out about a year after that.

Josh Poulson: About a year. Okay.

Manny Moncada: Bought him out. So basically that’s how auto house started with air conditioning in the Bay Area. And we would get truckloads of cars from Dodge, Ford, Nissan. They would instead of taking them to the dealerships, they were bringing them to auto house and we were putting in air conditioning.

Manny Moncada: And that’s pretty much how that portion started. from air conditioning to radios and there was a time when the winter timing would really get slow. So the air conditioning was going down. He I’ve got to start something different to take care of this winter portion. So he goes to his partner Joe.  He says, “We’ve got to go to the Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas.” He goes, “We’re going to get into car audio.” So, they fly to Vegas, they go into the show for probably about two hours. And he tells Joe, he goes, “Let’s go.” He goes, “We just got here.” He goes, “Let’s go.”

Manny Moncada: He goes, “We have no idea how to do this. he goes, ” this is not for us.” He goes, “We need to hire somebody that knows this business.” So,…

Manny Moncada: they came back and they found a guy I think it was Paul Dumbrinky, and he was a car audio guru and he basically built the business with car audio. So, we’re doing car audio, we’re doing alarm systems. and that’s how that retail segment came in line.

Josh Poulson: Is this the 80s roughly?

Manny Moncada: Yeah, it was the 80s because I know I came in I had worked all the summers,…

Manny Moncada: every summer I’d come in, I’d be sweeping floors, I’d be, screwing up problems with the installers.

Josh Poulson: Yeah. And…

Manny Moncada: But yeah it was 747576 is when that started.

Josh Poulson: what were they doing before your dad got there with air conditioning?

Manny Moncada: So headliner repair service work…

Josh Poulson: What were they installing? Okay. Yeah.

Manny Moncada: but nothing like what it is today. So yeah.

Josh Poulson: So, while we’re talking about the air conditioner,…

Josh Poulson: I have two questions. Number one, explain cuz some people may not understand this. You’ve explained to me in detail and I love it, but explain what do you mean adding air condition to a car because now it’s standard. And number two, do you even need air conditioning where you live in California?

Manny Moncada: You do.

Manny Moncada: Absolutely. Northern Colorado,…

Josh Poulson: Okay. Okay.

Manny Moncada: it’s hot. But cars were coming without A Dodge van, Econoline van, Ford Rangers without air conditioning.

Manny Moncada: So you would basically put an air conditioning unit in it, and utilize the vents that were there, and you’d add air conditioning, put a compressor underneath the evaporator core up underneath the hood, condenser in the front of the grill.

Josh Poulson: And how much did that cost to a dealer? Do you have any you remember?

Manny Moncada: I think back then it was 795 to9.95.

Josh Poulson: So it was a,000 bucks and…

Manny Moncada: Yeah, it was about a thousand now,…

Josh Poulson: that’s a lot back then.

Manny Moncada: right? Yeah.

Josh Poulson: But it’s like today,…

Manny Moncada: And guys were taking, two or three hours to install them.

Josh Poulson: you have your trim level. So these base cars were maybe $10,000 without air condition,…

Manny Moncada: Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: but if you wanted air condition, you had to jump to probably a 15 $16,000 car.

Josh Poulson: But by the time you got there, they were done air with air condition, right?

Manny Moncada: So when I started my job was to QC the air conditioner.

Manny Moncada: So I would check the temperature. we had Nissan that would bring their cars in from the port and…

Josh Poulson: Not much has changed.

Manny Moncada: we were doing air conditioning. We were doing radios. So I would set the stations, check the temperature. I was the QC guy and then it would go straight to the dealership. So, yep. No, I’m still a QC guy. Yeah. So, that’s how, air conditioning the car audio.

00:15:00

Manny Moncada: as far as my role with the company in the early days, the summertime was just QC, cleaning the shop, and then, I got into, air conditioning service work. I hated working on cars. I would always lose tools. I would always get frustrated. but that’s how I started.  I was just like, “Okay, put Manny in the back with one of the guys and just keep him back there.” And then eventually they knew this is not for him. So then we were selling air conditioning parts. We’re doing a AC Delco. We were doing Ford parts. And so then I started off helping in the parts department and then I was selling parts. And that’s kind of how I got started in sales was parts.

Manny Moncada: So worked up front and then kind of led into the car audio, working in sales. So that’s kind of how I got into the sales portion rather than working the back end of the shop. So god.

Josh Poulson: Mary Tammy earlier.

Jesse Stoddard: I was just going to ask if you could go back and give yourself advice when you were young, when you were just starting out, what would you tell your younger self?

Manny Moncada: I can’t remember that far back honestly. yeah, marry married my wife earlier. when I got out of high school I went to college and I played soccer and that’s all I wanted to do.  I was not one for books and to studying and I was into sports and I knew my dad had a business and I wanted to play sports so I had to go to college but then I wanted to work at auto going to a junior college for two years playing soccer. After that, they said I had two more years of junior college because I didn’t take any of the right classes because I was just going to play soccer. So eventually, my classes started with, four or five classes down to one class.

Manny Moncada: And my dad’s noticing the checks are getting bigger and bigger and noticing that I’m spending more time at Auto House and he’s like, “What happened to college?” I said, “I’m taking a sabbatical.” And he goes,…

Jesse Stoddard: Alpine.

Manny Moncada: “You might have to edit this.” He goes, “Women take sbaticals. You quit. I go, ” yeah, Dad. That’s not what I want to do. I just want to work.” So that’s how I ain’t it. On 30- year sbatical. Al Alpine.

Josh Poulson: You’re on a 30-year sbatical right now.

Josh Poulson: You were selling the parts and then you got into What was your first audio systems you were selling? What was it?

Manny Moncada: It was Alpine.

Josh Poulson: Alpine. What?

Manny Moncada: It was Alpine.

Josh Poulson: Give me a car the kind of head unit. Alpine. Yeah.

Manny Moncada: God. Alpine.

Manny Moncada: It was a I don’t even know what kind of cars we’re working on back there, but it was a radio with an speakers and an amplifier. And then all a sudden you get into subwoofers, It was the* convention underneath the CES little it was at the same time.

Josh Poulson: So, you remember obviously you were around when navigation started taking off and DVD players and backup cameras. I mean, what was like the ones that really aruck you when you went to CES? You’re like, there’s no way we’re ever going to be doing this. And now it’s even ancient history. what is it? The porter. Fair enough.

Manny Moncada: So that’s…

Josh Poulson: The p*** con.

Manny Moncada: where was…

Josh Poulson: The p*** convention. The one that you were like, “What did you get back from CES, man?” and…

Manny Moncada: what yeah we first started going to CS it was just audio and…

Josh Poulson: you’re like, ” they’re just new radios coming out.

Manny Moncada: alarm systems and there was no mobile video. taking it back when I got out of sales at the inside, my dad had a couple of guys that were calling on car dealerships and I had no idea how to call in a car dealership. They basically said, “You go out.” And I took what I learned in the retail of alarm systems. That was the easiest thing for me to go to a car dealer and try to sell them an alarm system.

Manny Moncada: Calling on car dealers, sound alarm systems. That’s where it basically started for me. and then eventually the coolest thing was the mobile video. And there was nobody in the Bay Area doing mobile video. And I remember my dad had a Suburban and Audio Voxman came to visit us and they were doing the vans where they had a center console in the middle with a little 4 inch 5 in TV and…

00:20:00

Josh Poulson: Mhm. Yeah.

Manny Moncada: it went in the center and they’re like this is what you need to start off with. So I think we bought 20 of these units.

Manny Moncada: I’m like, I could sell these. And I go, but what’s really cool is that one that goes overhead. And they’re like,…

Manny Moncada: you don’t want to do that one. That one takes a lot of time, for installation. And I’m like, no, that’s the one I want. …

Josh Poulson: Yeah. Jesse,…

Manny Moncada: my dad’s got a Suburban. So, we put that in, that Suburban, and I took that over. And that’s when it really blew up for me. I was like, “Okay, I get it. This is fun. Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: 

Josh Poulson: we’re not even talking about DVD players. We’re talking about a flip down screen with a VCP video cassette player that would go under the seat…

Manny Moncada: Right. That’s right.

Josh Poulson: because did you ever do any of the auto cinemas because they had the patent to put the VCP up in the ceiling.

Manny Moncada: Yes. Yes, we did. Yep. Yep.

Josh Poulson: So that thing was so long. It had a screen up here and…

Manny Moncada: Right. Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: then it had this long shroud and then you put the VCP in the back and you hung it all in the ceiling. But, Audioox did have the I mean,…

Josh Poulson: they kind of had the market eventually with the seven inch screen with VCP under the seat.

Manny Moncada: Right. Right.

Manny Moncada: We had one in one the front but one for each row and…

Josh Poulson: Yeah.

Manny Moncada: we had Top Gun playing. I take it to the dealership.

Josh Poulson: Sheesh.

Manny Moncada: Top Gun had the blasting, so it created some excitement. But that really really helped us, when that first came out. That was the thing. So now God.

Josh Poulson: Do you remember the first DVD player you did? I remember we ordered one and it was like $700 just for the DVD player and…

Manny Moncada: My god.

Josh Poulson: it was like gold. It was probably made out of gold.

Manny Moncada: My god. Right.

Josh Poulson: But I remember I’m like, man, and we put that thing in. We installed it and it skipped every couple miles it would skip. But I was like, they said, “No, this is made This made for the car.” We had that thing forever. I was like, “No one’s ever going to buy this thing. It’s way too expensive. We’ll never do DVDs in cars. They’re way too expensive.

Manny Moncada: Another first for my dad was cell phones. we were the first in the Bay Area to We had a connection with GTE.

Josh Poulson: Yep.

Manny Moncada: It was GTE at the time and…

Jesse Stoddard: Break the car phone like Yeah.

Manny Moncada: GTE contracted with Auto House to do all We were installing cell phones with a big brick in the back of the Car phones. It was a car phone.

Jesse Stoddard: and a brick.

Manny Moncada: Yep. Yeah.

Josh Poulson: 

Josh Poulson: Carones. Yeah. Jeez.

Jesse Stoddard: Ma Manny,…

Manny Moncada: So, I think it’s still the day.

Jesse Stoddard: when you look back at all that history with the company and what would you say is one of the toughest challenges you faced in the industry or maybe one or two of the challenges? What were some of the tough tough stuff that you got through?

Manny Moncada: I mean, the challenge is, these cars, are coming with more and more stuff.  you’re always looking for something to add to the dealing with car dealers, there’s always a constant change. so, every day it’s a challenge to try to find that next thing. it’s all relationships with the car dealers. so if you have something and you have the relationship, that’s what I think has kept us going is are these relationships for the past 50 years.

Manny Moncada: where these dealers do trust when we do bring something new. when there’s a change in a dealership, it hurts us when there’s a change in a dealership where they sell their entire dealer group and we’re relying on this income from this dealer group. we had at the time 14 dealerships and it was called the Lucas dealer group.  They had four Saturn stores. They had Honda. They had stores in Hawaii. And we were doing everything for Radios, sunroofs, alarm systems, and then overnight they sold to Autoation, Artisic, and that was a big challenge. And we put everything into that one account servicing it.

00:25:00

Manny Moncada: And now you got to start all over again. So that’s been a constant challenge is relationships with people when they move from places to places. Sometimes they’ll move to a different dealer and we can’t do business with them because it’s a different type of dealership. It might be a corporate account. So that’s a constant challenge.

Josh Poulson: talk about what are the pros and cons. So, it’s kind of like kids, I always say kids are the worst things ever. I love them, but then you want to kill them sometimes. What is it? So, Manny, you’ve come from A lot of families in the business. Your sister’s still in the business. You worked with both your parents in the business. Talk about some of the benefits and challenges for those that might be in a similar situation.

Manny Moncada: The positive sides for me is that, my dad I felt always trusted me to make mistakes. he’d guide me and, I could always turn to him. we had our battles. He didn’t agree with, a lot of the stuff that I was doing. but I could say he allowed me to make the decision and if it didn’t work it didn’t work and learn from my mistakes. He went to MIT and he says I went to MIT too. mistakes you mistakes I tried.

Manny Moncada: …

Josh Poulson: I like it.

Josh Poulson: Yeah, I like that.  Yeah.

Manny Moncada: the benefit too is that, you’re boss, and you’re able to make these decisions and make changes. I volunteered probably five years ago for the soccer club in Livermore where I live I live. and I was on the board and in charge of a division and that was really the first time that I volunteered for a board and I had to listen to parents I had to listen to the board and I couldn’t say no this is where we’re going to do it and it really taught me a lot that those two years of…

Josh Poulson: Yeah.

Manny Moncada: what it’s like to work for somebody

Manny Moncada: I’m never going to do this. but it was humbling. It was learn a learning experience. So, the pluses of working for a family business is that you do get to make your own decisions and you do have the flexibility as well. there’s a lot of things you can’t do if you’re working for somebody. So, working for the family business in that aspect was, very positive. Right.

Josh Poulson: talk of business and mad at each other.

Manny Moncada: Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: Salad. Yeah.

Manny Moncada: We would try to keep that work is work, family is family.

Manny Moncada: And I think my son’s working with me now, too. And, we come home and we really don’t talk about work. how was your day? It was great. Great. …

Manny Moncada: and if he wants to talk more about it,…

Josh Poulson: Yeah, it’s good.

Manny Moncada: But I’m not the one that’s bringing it up. you broke this, you did this, So, that’s keep it away. Yes. I would say a couple things that make us different…

Jesse Stoddard: Boundaries,…

Jesse Stoddard: good boundaries. let’s spend a minute just talking about Automotive, Manny. what do you feel sets I know you guys are unique. You do a lot of cool stuff that’s different, high quality. You’re picking up vehicles. You’re doing a lot of extra customer service. But what would you say about what makes you guys different?

Manny Moncada: but I would say the way that we run the operation the expectations of it’s a quality control system the paperwork the inventory it’s the structure  of it. I think, we’re a small family business, but yet, there’s things that we do that, a bigger business would do as far as managing your money. your P&Ls, by the 10th, we know exactly where we’re at. We look at our numbers every day. when we’re processing our orders, everything’s documentated, so there’s no surprises.

00:30:00

Manny Moncada: everybody knows when that product comes in what it’s for. so I would say my dad really helped set the structure up of how to run the business versus just ordering stuff that comes in. it’s on inventory. I could run a report. I could see exactly how much I have in inventory. I can see what I need. I can see what the cost is. I could look up the past history on a dealership. so it’s the structure portions that I feel like is different from some of the other mom and pop shops that run their company like ours. when we say, quality means everything to us, I really believe that, it does.

Manny Moncada: When customers bring in their cars, we’re taking pictures. We’re QCing the car. We’re writing the mileage down. just the little things. when we take it back to the dealership, we’re taking pictures. We’re protecting ourselves. you could just deliver it back and There’s damage on the car. Who’s paying for it? I’m paying for it. I got pictures of the car.

Manny Moncada: the simple thing with the mileage customer says you put 200 miles on my car it’s the structure it’s set up where no this is what we picked it up got to auto house is the miles that we put on the car we really do check the work before it goes back to the dealer my installers have got to check it my manager has  to check it. My driver has to check it before it gets back to the dealer. The worst thing that can happen is I get the phone call that said, hey, the window tank came off. Hey, paint protection came off. First thing I ask is who took the pictures? Where’s the QC? To protect ourselves from that.

Manny Moncada: So, answering the phone, taking care of the car dealer, we’ve got Rich that’s been with us for I think 31 years now. He started out as an installer and now he’s running our store. this guy, he cares about our business. He’s we say he’s family, but Rich is family. But, we’re fortunate to have had him follow all the procedures that,…

Manny Moncada: we’ve put in place. it does start as well with how Rich has handled the business,

Jesse Stoddard: That’s awesome.

Jesse Stoddard: Also retail, wholesale, dealership, fleet, all three.

Jesse Stoddard: What t talk about your thoughts about that because we all talk about that. I’m curious what your thoughts are. traditionally what have you guys been and what are you moving to or what you

Manny Moncada: Okay. …

Manny Moncada: traditionally we have been 70% dealer wholesale and 35% retail.  And prior to CO we started switching a little bit more retail but it was 6040 and after CO completely switched 30% dealer business. the last three years we’ve definitely have gotten back up our dealer business.

Manny Moncada: right now it’s a third dealer business a third retail and a third the commercial is coming from the dealer or the dealer is referring their fleet customer to us that might have five or six vans and we’re doing upfits for those vans. So that’s where I call it  That’s the commercial side. So, ed into once we got into doing more fleet and commercial, it’s helped our business to business.

Jesse Stoddard: That’s

00:35:00

Manny Moncada: Right. …

Josh Poulson: restyling products are coming down in the future. that you guys are going to focus on.

Manny Moncada: I would say, this last year, we got into the upfitting of the ladder racks, the van partitions, and we started, dabbling into it. We hit a few, Ford dealers, and they were feeding us. And when was Holman at our last resilers?

Josh Poulson: Minneapolis.

Manny Moncada: Six months ago.

Josh Poulson: 

Josh Poulson: Yeah. Yeah. probably six months ago.

Manny Moncada: six months ago is when we went all in and were able to get direct with Pullman where now we’re really hitting the fleet departments for the partitions, the shelving, the ladder racks. So, moving forward to here, that’s really our focus is to build that business.

Manny Moncada: So for what’s new, it’s that but really, to go after more and more fleet accounts. we’ve got probably four dealers that are really starting to feed us and we’re getting more and more as we take care of these dealers, we’re turning around faster for them. So I think they’re trusting us and we’re getting more and more calls for that. We are not. No. No.

Josh Poulson: So, even if they wanted HVAC in the back, you’re like, “Listen, we went down that road. You’re 30 years late.

Manny Moncada: Yeah. No.

Josh Poulson: …

Manny Moncada: That’s going to take another what’s nice about the upfits is that, it’s universal. We can have guys in the shop that, have done tano cover steps,…

Josh Poulson: yeah. Yeah,…

Manny Moncada: dive into that department. Air conditioning, you really need an air conditioning guy.

Josh Poulson: you’re right. With all the freon rules, I’m sure your dad didn’t have to deal with the freon rules.” Yeah,…

Manny Moncada: right? Exactly.

Manny Moncada: Right. Right.

Josh Poulson: he was dumping it down the sewer down in S. He was just throwing in the bay, all the old freon kick out and…

Manny Moncada: Right. Letting it out in the air.

Josh Poulson: everything. Yeah, I’m sure California has no restrictions these days.

Manny Moncada: …

Josh Poulson: Gosh, it’s gotcha.

Manny Moncada: as far as the restyling in, we got into the blackout packages and, that’s our second, segment for dealers that we’re really, focusing on as well.

Josh Poulson: and ceramic coating. You’re doing probably some ceramic. You’re doing some wraps.

Manny Moncada: We’re doing wraps, we’re doing more paint protection,…

Josh Poulson: Okay.

Manny Moncada: film, and window pit.

Manny Moncada: …

Josh Poulson: Look at you.

Manny Moncada: our segment is the paint protection film and the window tint and…

Josh Poulson: Mhm. Yep.  Yeah.

Manny Moncada: then truck accessories is our other segment and then in the truck accessories, the spray and bed liners, we started just doing spray and bed liners. we were subbing it all out and we had this little storage in the back where we were just throwing, tables in and sunroofs and my retail guy Matt was like selling upgrading its customers to spray bedlininers and we were subbing it out down the street and he tells me he goes, “Man,” he goes, “I really think we could sell a lot of Spray and Bedliners.

Manny Moncada: I’m like, “Okay, let’s do it.” I go, “Where are we going to do it?” He goes, “Let’s empty out this bin, put a rollup door, and get a machine and start doing it ourselves.” I’m like, “Okay, do it.” And once we converted that,…

Manny Moncada: that was probably our best move for getting into truck accessories. So, you’re right.

Josh Poulson: Nice. Yeah,…

Josh Poulson: cuz that leads to tano covers and step bars and everything else.

Manny Moncada: It totally changed the direction to,…

Josh Poulson: Yeah. Yeah.

Manny Moncada: truck accessories. and that’s the leading.

Manny Moncada: get them in with the spray and bed liner and then all a sudden we’re upgrading to steps and like you said all the other accessories.

Josh Poulson: My last question is whether it’s Restylers United or other people your peers or SEMA Pro, why do you see what’s the benefit for you or maybe others that are listening to get to know your peers.

Manny Moncada: I would say as an owner, you have nobody to turn to. you’re on an island and you’re trying to figure you have, your 15 point guys in the back and it’s your responsibility to make sure that they feed their family. And it’s up to you to go out and get new business.

Manny Moncada: And you can go out there and you could spin and get frustrated, get rejected all day and you’re out and you don’t know what to do.  And getting to know your peers, getting connected with Resilers United gives you gave me someone to turn to lean on to get ideas to where I don’t feel like I’m alone and I got to figure it all out on my own. So that’s been the biggest thing for me.

00:40:00

Jesse Stoddard: Yeah, Manny,…

Jesse Stoddard: thanks so much for your time today. we might even need to do a part two, Josh, because there’s a lot more we can talk about,…

Josh Poulson: If we’re going to do a part two,…

Jesse Stoddard: But Manny,…

Josh Poulson: number one, his mom needs to be there and his wife needs to be there because those are the two ladies that keeps this guy in line.

Manny Moncada: right? That’s great.

Josh Poulson: I love it.

Jesse Stoddard: you do a little shout out? How do people get a hold of you or learn more about your company? Maybe mention your website phone numbers or what do you want people to follow you on social media or…

Manny Moncada: Okay. …

Jesse Stoddard: what would you like to share with our listeners? Nice.

Manny Moncada: as far as, following us on Automotive Solutions. and then as far as, direct, it’s 5108811915.

Josh Poulson: And if it’s auto house, let’s just make it sure because if they’re listening, it’s auto h a US.

Manny Moncada: H A US S.

Jesse Stoddard: House autoousmotive.com.

Josh Poulson: The real auto house.

Manny Moncada: You got it.

Josh Poulson: Yes. All right,…

Jesse Stoddard: All right.

Josh Poulson: thank you so much for being part of it, bro. We appreciate Love you, baby. And I’ll see you soon,…

Manny Moncada: Love you, too. Thank you guys.

Josh Poulson: I’m sure.

Manny Moncada: All right.

Jesse Stoddard: Thanks. Take care.

Manny Moncada: right.